Newsletter

Harper: Georgia lags on ethics reform

Most items of consequence within the Georgia General Assembly happen during the final few days.

Today and Thursday will mark days 39 and 40. Many items that were considered dead will make “surprise” appearances via amendments to other bills. Some items will be brand new. And some will be compromises heralded as solutions, but don’t fix the problems.

Ethics reform looks like it will fall into the final category.

The compromise between the House and Senate — if there is to be one — centers on if there is a dollar threshold on gifts that lobbyists can give legislators, or whether gifts should be eliminated. Also, what loopholes will allow those gifts to continue and who will have to register as a lobbyist to report such gifts?

Ethics reform advocates are partly responsible for this debate. The Georgia Ethics Alliance, composed of groups such as Common Cause Georgia and the Tea Party Patriots, pushed for a gift cap of $100 during last session. They deemed it progress when many of those who spent the last session blocking reforms signed on.

The House passed a measure that changed the definition of who must register as a lobbyist and a total gift cap. The Senate wants to allow gifts of up to $100, which can be delivered multiple times by the same lobbyist to the same legislator each day.

The Tea Party Patriots spent most of the early part of the debate battling against requirements that they must register as lobbyists, rather than focusing on adding what these bills lack — independent oversight and individual accountability for legislators who violate gift restrictions or accept undisclosed gifts.

Lawmakers who tell us transparency ensures accountability will not want you to ask why their own body remains exempt from Georgia’s open records laws.

It’s likely that new ethics laws will refuse to address real ethics problems in our state government. The lack of real commitment to change is the thing that remains most transparent.

Charlie Harper lives in Atlanta and edits the Peach Pundit political blog.